PREVALENCE OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE (AMR) SALMONELLA SPP. AND ESCHERICHIA COLI ISOLATED FROM BROILERS IN EAST COAST MALAYSIA

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Malaysia Kelantan, 16100 Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan, Malaysia Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Nyala, PO Box 155 | South Darfur State, Nyala, Mousseh district, south of the city, Sudan. Rhone Ma Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Lot 18A & 18B, Jalan 241, Seksyen 51a , 46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Department of Veterinary Services Pahang, Jalan Sri Kemunting 2, 25100 Kuantan, Pahang. Corresponding author: norfadhilah@umk.edu.my, +6097717330 Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 28 December 2020 doi:10.20944/preprints202012.0679.v1


INTRODUCTION
The poultry industry is the primary agricultural sector in Malaysia which contributes 62.9% from the total GDP in the animal farming industry (Amna et al., 2020). It has transformed with increasing in the number of production as well as

Avian salmonellosis can be caused by intestinal colonization and invasion by
Salmonella serovars resulting in enteritis, septicemia, and mortality in animal. Some Salmonella serovars, particularly Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Enteritidis, can persist in the digestive tracts of chickens (Huang et al., 2009). Salmonellosis is caused by non-typhoidal Salmonella and typically characterised by gastroenteritis syndrome in human (Antunes et al., 2016). Avian colibacillosis is a significant infectious disease caused by pathogenic E. coli strains and causes massive economic emergence of some organisms resistant to most or all antimicrobials (Teillant & Laxminarayan, 2015). Antimicrobial resistance present in bacteria from production animals may lead to therapy failure and economic losses for the farmer, and transferring of resistance to potential human pathogenic bacteria, and likewise causing treatment difficulties (van den Bogaard & Stobberingh, 1999

Ethical statement
The current study was conducted at Zoonotic laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan. The study protocols, procedures, and consent form were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK/FPV/ACUE/PG/2/2019).

Sample size determination and sampling method
The sample size was determined by using StatCalc from Epi-Info (7)  After 24 hrs, the plate was examined for the presence of suspected Salmonella spp.
The suspected colonies were subjected to biochemical test followed by latex agglutination test using the commercial available polyvalent antisera (Oxoid Salmonella test kit DR1108A) to screen for Salmonella flagellar antigen. Briefly, a loop full of suspected colonies were emulsified with one drop of 0.85% sodium chloride on the reaction card to produce the smooth suspension. Then a drop of Salmonella latex reagent was added and mixed with the organism suspension with the clean mixing stick. Salmonella isolates will cause an agglutination in the reaction.

Antimicrobial susceptibility test
The antimicrobial susceptibility for all isolates were determined through the  Table 1).

Determination of multiple antimicrobial resistance (MAR) indexes
MAR was calculated as reported by Christopher and Ali (2013) as follows: MAR index = Number of antimicrobials to which the isolate showed resistance ℎ

Statistical analysis
The results were analyzed statistically using the Graph Pad Prism version 8. The level of significance was determined at 95% confidence level and p<0.05.

Terengganu and Pahang.
Of 384 samples, a total of 25 Salmonella spp. and 199 E. coli were isolated with the overall prevalence of 6.6% and 51.8%, respectively. In Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, the prevalence of Salmonella spp were 7%, 6.5% and 5.8% respectively, while the prevalence for E. coli were 50%, 48.3% and 58% respectively. Table 2 summarizes the results for the prevalence and distribution of Salmonella spp. and E.
coli isolated from broilers in the three state.

Overall Salmonella and E. coli susceptibility towards antimicrobial tested
To

DISCUSSIONS
Increasing AMR cases in human, in part, has been correlated with transmission of the pathogen from animal to human. Here we found that Salmonella and E. coli  are known to be more sensitive compared to the disc diffusion method.
In conclusion, this finding indicated the high prevalence of multi-drugs resistant